As….as….a…ah...balloon

I was sitting at McDonald's today pirating Internet. Good pastime that…I jump in the ss minnow and head over to the local swill dealer and don my eye patch, just for free Internet. What one will do to get free stuff!

 So I’m sitting mindlessly reading other blogger’s work when I heard a strangely familiar noise. Now if I was a better writer I would be able to write the sounds for you, but I’m not so I won’t. Within a short space of time I realized the two boneheads across from me were doing whippets!

Ok, for those not familiar with whippets I’ll explain.  A whippet is nitrous oxide in a little canister normally used for whip cream. Using a device called a “cracker” a canister is cracked open and the nitrous (otherwise known as hippy crack) is expelled into a balloon; known to the discerning whippet aficionados as….as….a…ah...balloon, yeah a balloon man.

I was less annoyed that those two boneheads were sucking down whippets in the middle of a busy McDonald's like they were going out of style, than by the fact that the fucking cracking is loud and annoying. Is that wrong?

So after that for some reason my mind turned to something more morbid. What would you do if you knew you were going to die? And when I say “Knew” I mean you have like a month, or six left and you had no question that it would happen. Think about it, and then put that thought on the shelf for a few minutes. Walk away, look from another direction, than pick it back up and think about it again. Is it still the same? 

This train of thought will be the basis for my next post, a short story about someone who has just got the news

The phone rings.

“Hello” a voice from the end of miles of wire says.

“Mom”

“Mike is that you?” the woman says with a hint of concern “Mike?”

Hushed wracking sobs could be heard from the phone.

“Mike what is wrong?” the hint has turned into a hurricane “your scaring me. Mike just say something!”

“Mom, Mom I’m dying…..

Chris McQueeney 11/28/11 11:23 PM

Thinning

Stephan King writes about the thinning of reality in his Darktower series. I think I experienced that this weekend. Reno, the biggest little town in Nevada. This is a place where the veneer of humanity has been rubbed so thin that you can see the cancerous lesions just under the surface! I was so excited to go, my first trip in seven years, and it sucked!

Just off the plane I turned on my phone to check my messages and I had two heart crushing txts from my sister. My niece and nephew (12 and 10) didn’t come home from school. The time stamp was 9:30, the phone said 12:03 and I almost puked! After calling my sister and the Caldwell police station I spent the night spinning on the situation, it has been three days and I don’t think I am fully over it. The kids are fine; they showed up in the morning.

Maybe this tainted the whole trip, maybe. I don’t think so, I think Reno is one of those places that is just thin, it asks, no calls for things like this to happen….

Born on wings

Rustling past

The sound of wind on wing

Stretched taut, extended

Nerves firing

Adrenalin flowing along channels

Dug for only that reason

I knew I would never

She shouts, lifting her face to the sky

I knew….I knew I knew I knew!

I knew wrong

She whispers into the silence so deafening

With a snap

Her reverie is broken

Born on wings she screams

I fly!

Chris McQueeney, 11/21/11 9:50PM

We Will!

I read a wonderful poet yesterday and I tried to post a comment on her site and my computer would not let me! I can’t fucking believe how stupid my computer can be at times, this wasn’t the first. I know it wasn’t her blog, it is my computer. I had a poem I was warping in my mind, I felt the muse dancing along my fingertips. For the first time in a while muse was in a good mood and wanted to write about feeling humbled. I tried to reply to her poem and…NO GO! Ok, I’ll try another way…NO GO!  After an hour and a half of this I got fed up and saved my comment on word, closed my computer, and left. No poem written; no positive expression. Oh well, I have a long writing life left to me; muse and I didn’t dance yesterday but we will again. We will!

Here is the comment maybe Eve could forward it to her @ http://nevine-sultan.blogspot.com/2011/10/superlative.html     This was in response to her poem Superlative.

I am continually amazed and so grateful that my friend got me into this blogosphere. The things I have found have changed the way I believe about things; changed my perceptions of poetry, and written expression! Your poetry is amazing, I am humbled. 

With sights of things not real

This is an offering to three word Wednesday, a mid week experiment on inspiration here is the link to that site....threewordwednesday.

With sights of things not real

I drank

I sooo drank

Wobbling and tipsy

With a hitch in my step

And a slur in my speech

I’m quitting! I state

With the certitude only a drunk can muster

Six pack in hand

Mikes hard lemonade to warm my way

On the long cold journey

Fortifying myself for what was to come

At the end of that three block trudge

Through snow and cold and drink

Waited shakes And vomit And pain

Delirium driven ravings with sights of things not real

Three days

Three days was all I could make it

I drank

Chris McQueeney 11/9/11 8:07AM

The events that inspired this will be in my book. Oh yes, did I not tell you? I have officially started my first book. I have the outline for twenty seven chapters, the intro, and a good chunk of several chapters written! This has been in the wings for twenty two years. the dust is thick on some parts, but I have some lemon pledge, a rag, and some elbow grease!

Cadavs

So I was on this blog Old spice is nice thumbing through some of his recent posts and I come across a post about making a poem out of, or around the almost words from the word verification. I liked the post so I commented, when I got to the word verif screen the jumble sparked something in me.

Cadavs

The cadavs piled up

Cord wood like in my brain

Stacked toe to chin

Looking at me with flaccid grins

And dull eyes

Chris McQueeney 11/8/11 9:31AM

whatever

today is the day after my father's birthday. I thinkl I am emotionally hung over! So, hi, or whatever:-)